Khatami blames clerics for failure

The Iranian president, Mohammad Khatami, yesterday defended his failed attempts to reform the country's theocracy and warned against the dangers of religious "despotism".

In a statement addressed to the country's youth, Mr Khatami alluded to his conservative opponents, saying: "The idea of implementing religious rule through despotism and by force and by ignoring people's demands is the wrong path."

In a 47-page "letter for the future", Mr Khatami said his government had stood for noble principles but had made mistakes and faced obstruction by hardline elements in the clerical establishment.

"Organised and shallow-minded methods to damage the public's opinion and dissuade it from reforms on the one hand, and hasty behaviour in the name of reforms on the other hand, are the two bitter historical phenomena of this period," he said.

Coinciding with his warning,
the hardline judiciary told news agencies it had reinstated the death sentence against an academic who questioned the clergy's divine right to rule.

Hashem Aghajari, a wounded veteran of the Iran-Iraq war, was sentenced to death in 2002 for blasphemy after he argued that Islam should be reinterpreted by each new generation. The sentence sparked student protests and the judiciary rescinded the ruling.

In his philosophical essay, Mr Khatami cited the Aghajari case and said the original ruling was an "unfair sentence" by an "inexperienced judge".

The latest ruling seemed to contradict recent attempts by the authorities to defuse allegations of human rights abuses.

Mr Khatami said the conservatives had tried to co-opt much of the reformist agenda, which he saw as a sign for optimism. He said the cabinet had presided over an expansion in social freedom, with the authorities turning a blind eye to couples holding hands and women circumventing the Islamic dress code.

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